Campbell Soup Exec's Caravan Tweet Leads to Early Exit

A Campbell Soup vice president, who tweeted last week that billionaire political donor George Soros was assisting the migrant caravan headed toward the U.S., has exited the company days before his planned departure.

Kelly Johnston, who formerly sat as Campbell's vice president of government affair, caused a stir after he posted a tweet claiming that Soros' Open Society Foundations was providing "troop carriers" and "rail cars" to the caravan, CNN Business reported.

"And they have an army of American immigration lawyers waiting at the border," the tweet read, according to The Hill.

Johnston's Twitter account has since been deleted and Campbell has sought to distance itself from the controversy.

In a statement to The Hill, a company spokesperson confirmed the former executive's early departure.

"Mr. Johnston and the company discussed in August that he would transition out of his role with his departure scheduled for early November," the statement read. "In the last few days, the company and Mr. Johnston agreed that under the current circumstances it would be best to accelerate the timing of his departure."

The Open Society Foundations dismissed Johnston's claims as false in a tweet last week, and called for action from the soup company.

Campbell Soup's interim president and CEO, Keith McLoughlin, responded with a letter to the Open Society Foundation, noting that Johnston's remarks were not a representation of the company's views, CNN noted.

"Mr. Johnston's remarks do not represent the position of Campbell and are inconsistent with how Campbell approaches public debate," McLoughlin said.

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